Mourinho Expects Quiet Week On Transfers

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is expecting a “very quiet” final few days of the summer transfer window and reiterated he is happy with the squad he has assembled.

The boss has brought in four new players – Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Paul Pogba – while several others have departed, either on loan or permanently.

The window closes on 31 August and Mourinho said at his pre-match press conference on Friday: "I have 23 players in the squad and in principle there is nobody leaving and nobody is coming.

"Twenty-three players is more than enough and, if you have a problem or an opportunity, then I have a few young players in the Academy that I will be more than happy to give an acceleration in their process.

"I like Cameron Borthwick-Jackson very much but he will go to Wolverhampton to play [on loan] because I have Luke Shaw, Marcos Rojo and Daley Blind to play left-back. These are the kind of decisions every club makes.

"I think we are going to have a very quiet week, not surrounded by helicopters waiting for someone to arrive or leave – I am more than happy with the squad I have."

United have been handed a testing draw in the Europa League group stage, with Fenerbahce and Feyenoord joined by lesser-known Ukrainian outfit Zorya Luhansk. Mourinho believes the standard of United’s opponents will keep his players on their toes, even if he chooses to rotate his squad.

"This Europa League is good because if I change the team and give a few players the chance to play against a team without expression, when everyone thinks we will win comfortably, even the players can start to think that although it is a gift, it's not the gift they want," he said.

"Fenerbahce is Champions League [standard], as is Feyenoord. It is a big match to play in Istanbul as it is in Rotterdam, so it is a good draw for our squad."